Julio Teheran didn’t have it yesterday. He battled, and did a good job to escape with only four runs on his line; he walked five men and departed with the bases loaded with one out in the fifth inning, having needed 102 pitches to get 13 outs.

For the second day in a row, the Braves offense recorded eight hits; for the second day in a row, the Braves improved on the previous day’s scoring total by a run. But while the Braves scored 1, 2, and 3 runs against the Mets, the Mets scored 7, 3, and 6 runs against the Braves. This may be because Braves starting pitchers threw a total of 14 1/3 innings while Mets starters went 19 2/3. It is also because our offense is awful and theirs is merely mediocre.

It’s galling to watch the Braves get swept by the Mets, but it is clear that the Mets are a better team than we are right now, and it’s mainly because of the pitching. We already knew this team couldn’t hit. What’s worrisome is the possibility that they can’t do anything else, either.

I have given up hope for the wild card already, and am merely hoping for a non-repeat of the year that lead to my nom de blog – 1988.

That was the year, if you’ll recall, when in the wake of another 100 loss season, someone asked Gerald Perry what he thought about that Braves’ season and he replied – “This would’ve been a good summer to paint the seats.”

Sutton is a bit too folksy for my tastes but I generally agree with his analysis. He can’t do play-by-play. Simpson is better than Sutton at PBP on the rare occasion he does it but his annoying analysis has been covered ad nauseum here.

@10, Not so fast on those grades. Sutton doesn’t call the ninth, remember? And you apparently like him as the color guy. (@11, Stu: That’s trolling. None of the rest of it was, I promise.)

@7, You don’t get my drift, actually. There was an actual disagreement about how well he calls the game as it’s happening (or even, a la Spike, that he gets in the way of the broadcast when he’s particulartly long-winded)–that’s real, and I carried on a real discussion about it. Then there’s saying, roughly, that he does a bad job because he tells anecdotes of baseball yore, quotes experts in the field, and fills time by giving capsule biographies about the principals in a radio program in which brief periods of action are interpolated with rest periods of milling about on a warm evening. The second is an absurd argument to make. It would be as absurd as criticizing Seat Painter for reminiscing about the 1988 Braves on a Braves message board.

@15, To use your model: It’s a head-scratcher for me to read that his 3 innings of play-by-play are anything worse than “serviceable, I guess.” Folks were coming off much stronger than that in the last thread.

@20 – Fan, short for fanatic. Gotta love that dude’s enthusiasm. Alas, I am a cynic. And a glutton for punishment. And I root for the laundry no matter how bad they are. At the risk of being cast as insane, I actually started having a glimmer of hope a couple of weeks ago. Reality sucks.

@21, At 8-7, we’re right in the thick of things. I will have hope until we’re out of contention. And at that point, which will probably come before the ASB, I will have hope for next season. I will follow the development of our prospects and young major leaguers, hoping that by next year (or even the year after) we will contend again.

I don’t think that’s crazy–it’s just being a fan. If we had no hope, we probably wouldn’t keep watching.

I don’t have high hopes for this year’s team, obviously, but that doesn’t mean there’s no way to squeeze some enjoyment out of it. Watch because we’ll eventually see some new young guys. Watch because each individual game is a couple hours of unscripted theater, even if you kinda know what’s going to happen over the course of 162. Watch because you like the Braves, and you like baseball.

I don’t think they revoke your Braves fan card just for thinking this team is gonna suck. The roster does suck.

On the subway headed to Senior Citizen’s Bank Park. Bundled up for what looks like is going to be a chilly affair. Not gonna get too worked up over the outcome, but if Jeffy gets a big hit against us tonight, that might send me over the edge

The Harang and Cahill moves aren’t in any way related. We passed on Harang months before Cahill was on the table.

We passed on Harang because we didn’t believe in him. If he came out and started doing again, his age, and the fact that NO ONE really believes in him, make him a poor trade chip. Likewise, for the same reason further success from him wouldn’t make him into a good trade chip, success wouldn’t turn him in to a valuable long term asset.

We picked up Cahill because the scouts must have liked something, and/or Roger must think he can help him, IN CONJUNCTION with the fact that if he DOES work out, he is eminently tradeable, and again, for the same reasons he’d be valuable as a trade chip, success from him might cause you to keep him as a long term asset.

Passing on Harang when we did made perfect sense. Picking up Cahill when we did also made perfect sense. We even jettisoned this years Harang-Candidate, Wandy Roderiguez, to fit Cahill in to the rotation. Again, because age, contract control, and the fact that even if he’s successful, no one will buy high on Wandy Roderiguez.

Aaron Harang, or Wandy Roderiguez, might have helped our team win more games. But in a season where “more games” probably means 82 instead of 78, the best-case scenario of having a guy with pedigree for 3 years, or trading a guy with pedigree and 3 years of control, still wins out, even in hindsight.

@71, you never followed any portion of the discussion. You called the trade a win if we got innings out of Cahill. I said roughly “nuts to that, we could’ve gotten better out of Harang for the same money”. You chose to attack me with abandon. Hey, if you’re going to be so aggressive, don’t act all crazy when someone calls you on it.

AJP has to have the worst hands of any catcher I’ve ever seen. I only watched three innings tonight, and he dropped at least 4 pitches that hit his glove square on which rolled away from him afterwards.

What I think is being ignored is, if Cahill throws 175, that means he made approximately 30 starts and averaged 6 innings in them. With his recent past, him staying in the rotation for 30 starts would mean he must have drastically improved.

Which is to say, it isn’t just the innings. If Aaron Harang pitched 175 innings for us, we got 175 innings, great. If Cahill throws 175 innings, we get 175 innings, and we probably recovered an asset.

If you let Teheran eat innings the first few months and stick with the plan to provide an extra day of rest whenever possible, you're less likely to end up in a position where you may need to limit the younger arms down the stretch